Letter: Concealed carry needs better screening, reevaluation

Comment

Rockford Register Star

Writer

Posted Mar. 12, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Posted Mar. 12, 2014 at 10:00 AM

I spoke with a gentleman in the concealed carry booth at the recent home show. He mockingly labeled me a "victim" for refusing their services. While I agree with the right to bear arms, I am apprehensive about guns accessible to children, criminals and unstable persons. This often results in very dire consequences.

Last summer, my husband, an avid experienced cyclist, was nearly run off the road by a red pickup whose driver also threatened him with a gun — on a low-traffic country road! Also, an acquaintance informed me of warning her son to not arrive unannounced or she may shoot him!

Before licensing people for concealed carry or gun ownership, better screening and reevaluation is necessary to decrease accessibility by these types, including at gun shows and other sales outlets. Though I have been defined as a "victim," I am a healthcare professional and maintain that more people are dying from heart disease (1 million per year) than gun deaths (average of 34,000 per year.)

Both can be decreased, but increased availability of guns by the wrong types and lax unenforced regulations will likely result in more gun deaths and mass shootings, as current history seems to show.